I left the guild in the evening and headed straight for the village exit. Of course, I was taking a huge risk – at least three teams would be after me, and whether I survived the night was a big question. But I had my reasons. First, I needed to show everyone that this prey bit back, at least weeding out the small fry. Second, killing high-level players was very profitable. And third, I'd noticed – and the Bull confirmed my suspicions – that during danger, stats grew faster than through training, and there was hope the perks would be better too.
Leaving the village under the watchful eyes of the guards, I walked toward the river, gradually veering into the woods. After going a little deeper into the forest, I hid behind some bushes and began watching the gates. Three or four minutes later, a party of two men and two women emerged. All wore leather armor; the men had axes and shields, one of the women carried a staff – probably a mage – and the other had a bow. Clearly a coordinated team – splitting and killing them like yesterday's amateurs wouldn't work. Right on their heels came two more, both with spears, one also carrying a bow. The two teams talked for a bit – apparently dividing me up – then headed in the direction I'd gone. I was more wary of the pair of newcomers than the foursome – clearly experienced hunters.
Without activating the anti-tracking skill, I ran deeper into the woods. The leader of the foursome pulled some talisman from his pocket and, pinpointing my direction, started charging with his team. The hunters, however, were following my tracks directly. After about a kilometer of running, I stopped, activated the anti-tracking skill, and began slowly veering left while staying hidden. A good tracker might still find my tracks, but dusk was falling, and soon night would be in full swing. I figured this would let me get behind the hunters.
I started circling back along the path I'd come, but with a wide arc. I spotted the hunters about 50 meters away – they moved quietly and unobtrusively, but the night vision from my class and boosted Perception let me find them easily. I began approaching from behind. They stayed 3-4 meters apart, so silently taking one would be tricky. I crept after them, waiting for an opportunity for about ten minutes. During that time, my Stealth gained another point, and I got my first perk.
You have reached 25 in the Stealth stat. Choose a perk:
Child of Shadows – you are 50% harder to detect while stealthed.
Step into Shadow – even during combat, you can quickly conceal yourself and become invisible to the enemy if you are in a sufficiently dark area.
In terms of potential, the first perk offered more, but right now I chose Step into Shadow. It gave me a lot of room to maneuver. Here we go.
I got behind the hunter who was now holding a bow – he'd slung his spear on his back and held an arrow in his hand. A quick strike to the neck, dagger coming out the other side. He wheezed and crumpled, already dead. The second hunter spotted me immediately and lunged with rage on his face, but I managed to dart behind a tree and use the skill to dissolve into the night. Instead of chasing me, he dropped to his knees beside his partner, checking if he was still alive – apparently hoping to help him with a potion he pulled from his belt pouch. Big mistake – I hadn't gone anywhere. Spending 25 mana without hesitation, I fired a bolt of darkness, hitting him square in the head. Simultaneously with the spellcast, I lunged, covering the couple of meters and driving a knife into his temple.
Hunting team – zero. Blade of Night – two. Score in my favor for now. I quickly looted both, taking a belt with potion pouches. I also took a knife from one of them – a pretty good one, shaped like an SVD bayonet but with a beautiful bone handle and a razor-sharp edge. A recognizable piece. I hung it with its sheath on my new belt. The bowman had a gold ring with a yellow stone in the center – I took that too and tossed it in my bag. I couldn't loot thoroughly because the foursome was approaching our position.
I started circling behind them. The air around the mage was strangely shimmering – in daylight I'd never have noticed, but my night vision was unusual, with a wide spectrum of grays. I wanted to get close to her first, but I'd save her for last – if I could take her at all tonight. I crept up behind the archer, but then noticed her ears twitching strangely. Whoa – she had pointed ears like an elf's – sharp hearing, apparently. I'd need to be careful. Every ten meters she'd stop, and her ears would seem to twitch – probably listening. On one such stop, I approached from behind. At the last moment, she heard something and turned her head toward me, but it didn't save her – the knife went into the base of her skull, severing the spine, while the dagger cut her throat.
The rest of the team spun toward me instantly. The two bruisers rushed me, and the mage fired a flaming arrow. I was already stepping into shadow when the magical projectile scorched my right arm on a glancing hit. Gritting my teeth, I hid and started retreating swiftly. The bruisers started thrashing at bushes, shouting insults and challenging me to fight, while the mage fired a couple more shots and ran to the archer, casting what looked like a healing spell on the move. One of the bruisers dropped to his knees beside the archer's body and started crying, while the other scanned the area with sharp eyes, constantly glancing at his pendant.
After a couple minutes, they started arguing – the archer's lover (probably) insisted on carrying the body back to the village, while the rest urged him to leave it and start hunting down "evil me." Apparently, in their minds, I was supposed to meekly wait to be captured and dragged to the Osms. Well, fuck that, guys – I'm not pure evil, but anyone who comes hunting me better be ready to become prey.
Leaving the elf's body where it lay, they quietly discussed a plan to catch me. They clearly understood I was watching them, so even unconsciously they kept scanning the surroundings. After presumably settling on a plan, they started moving toward where they'd last seen me. Fine dust-threads emanated from the mage in all directions – probably some kind of alarm spell. I decided to play the attrition game. They'd stopped using the tracking amulet, deciding it was useless, so I no longer kept the anti-tracking skill active constantly. My mana was slowly regenerating. Maybe the mage's regeneration outpaced her expenditure, and she wasn't losing any at all. But besides mana and endurance, there was something even the system didn't account for – nerves. I wouldn't let them rest all night, and I'd catch them slipping.
I picked up a rock and was about to toss it at the mage when I noticed something strange. Looking closer, I saw that parallel to me, hugging the ground, a black cat about a meter and a half long was crawling toward them. So not everyone in this forest was peaceful – there were night predators here. And this particular kitty was a kindred spirit. Just as the predator was about to enter the detection radius of the threads, I threw the rock in the opposite direction, slightly ahead, into the bushes. The whole team immediately looked that way, and one of the bruisers charged with his shield to ram the bushes. The mage held her spell ready, poised to release a flaming arrow at any second. Their readiness to counter an attack from that side worked in the cat's favor – it lunged, not at the girl as I'd hoped, but at one of the warriors. It jumped on his back and bit through his neck from behind. But it didn't finish him – instead, it immediately ducked into the bushes and ran. Apparently, the cat had the same strategy as me. We'd cooperate, then.
The bruiser staggered back, facing the running cat, and the mage immediately cast a healing spell to stop the bleeding. She was already preparing a second spell, apparently to close the bite wound. In the brief moment when the remaining standing members relaxed, seeing their comrade still alive, I struck the standing warrior – dagger to the neck, knife to the temple. With the 15x Backstab multiplier and a critical hit to vital organs, the tank had no chance. He crumpled forward dead, and his team didn't even notice. When the sound of the fall made the mage turn and see her dead comrade, she froze. She stared at the corpse, doing nothing – probably in shock. The wounded warrior turned to see why he wasn't being healed, then started cursing loudly. He walked over to the corpse and confirmed his buddy was dead. The mage remained motionless and mute – a perfect target, but I couldn't circle behind her in time.
The warrior walked over and shook her, but she didn't respond. He slapped her, and only then did the girl break down – she started hysterically crying. Despite her high level, she was clearly under 25; it's not easy to lose two comrades at once and stay calm. The warrior slapped her again and ordered her to set up a guard, then began looting the dead. He scanned around, expecting an attack from any direction – but the attack came from above. Even for me, it was unexpected – the cat dove from a high branch onto the mage, tearing her throat to shreds with a single swipe. The bruiser lunged at it, raising his axe. A Dark Arrow hit him in the right side of the face; without stopping, I sent another arrow into his head. The cat pounced on him, tearing at his face. By speed, I couldn't even track the cat's movements – it could have taken me out with one swipe. But instinct made me step out from behind the tree and approach it.
It stared at me intently. I walked up and crouched, slowly moving my hand toward its head. It didn't move, waiting for my move. I brought my hand to its head and slowly petted it. It shook its head, throwing my hand off, and growled at me. Taking the hint, I backed off. Approaching the mage's body, I took a ring with a blue stone. The cat continued watching me carefully. Backing away, I disappeared into the bushes.
After putting some distance between us, I reactivated the anti-tracking skill and began the journey back to the village. I made it back in three hours, constantly scanning and hiding – there might have been more teams out hunting me. And I wasn't wrong. About 600 meters from the village, two women were standing around discussing me.
"Are you sure the Lynx will catch her? What if those dumbasses get her first?"
"I told you – her class is Lustful Scout. Those idiots will never catch her. But Lynx and her hunter buddy – they'll track her down no problem and have her trussed up within an hour. They're probably not back yet because they're having fun with her."
"Then we stick to the plan – toss the gas vials, snatch the bitch, and straight to Djer?"
"Exactly. We can get there on my uncle's horses in two weeks max. If we run into trouble, we cut off her head and carry that. Let's not get too greedy."
"So how long are we supposed to wait for those assholes? I need sex – I can't take it anymore."
"Hold on another hour, and the best brothels with boys in Djer will be ours."
More chatter followed about how they'd spend the money on my head, while I circled around them. These bitches stayed close together – couldn't take both at once. And my arm was barely responding from the burn – during the hunt I'd endured the pain, occasionally casting Minor Heal on it, but the burn was 2-3 centimeters deep; not so easy to fix. Maybe leave them be? But then my eye caught a round glass vial – thin glass. What if that was their sleeping gas? Worth the risk.
I approached to within two meters and took the throwing knife. Hitting from this distance was no problem – the question was whether the glass would break. Let's try. I held my breath and threw. The vial shattered, smoke started pouring out, and I ran 100 meters away from the cloud. Both huntresses collapsed unconscious. After waiting five minutes, I approached them.
"So what do I do with you? Kill or not kill – that is the question." But who was I kidding – this world was built on killing. I'd get loads of experience, and I had zero moral qualms. I know, I know – I'm an isekai girl and I'm supposed to be some kind of heroine. But this time, something went wrong – this isekai was no hero. I slit their throats and, just in case, stabbed their hearts too. We were too close to the village – leaving the bodies there risked discovery. I dragged them to the river, filled their bags with stones, and dumped them in.
So, the results of the night hunt:
You received 9700 EXP
You reached Level 8
Free Attribute Points: 40
Strength +11
Agility +16
Endurance +9
Intelligence +2
Stealth +9
Perception +6
You have reached 25 in the Strength stat. Perk acquired: "Powerful Strike" (Your melee attacks deal 50% more damage).
You have reached 50 in the Agility stat. Choose a perk:
Speed 2 (you move 40% faster)
Dash – you sharply move 3 meters in a chosen direction (active, costs 20 endurance, 1-minute cooldown)
Cat's Grace – your movements mesmerize onlookers, increasing their arousal by 1 every 5 seconds.
I chose Speed – in combat, speed is everything. I wanted the active skill too, but I'd find something better later – passives rule.
You have reached 50 in the Endurance stat. Choose a perk:
Fortitude – you are harder to wound; your skin is 50% tougher and you bleed slower.
Insatiable – during sex, endurance drains 70% slower.
Here I chose the less obvious option – Insatiable – since I planned to actively grind leveling soon. Fortitude was super cool – probably why that bastard Turiy survived – but something told me I could develop it further, while my leveling speed needed a boost. With the Nymphomaniac perk from 25 Arousability, I could now run a sex marathon and stockpile experience faster.
After reviewing the logs and choosing perks, I approached the village gates